Chennai: Student visa restrictions by US and European countries, the West Asian conflict and low fees have resulted in more admissions under NRIs and Children of Indian Workers in Gulf Countries (CIWGC) quotas at Anna University this year. About 160 students were enrolled in these categories for the 2026-27 academic year against 136 last year.
These students are from countries such as Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, UK, Korea, Japan, Canada, Angola, Azerbaijan, Australia and Germany. The university charges $7,500 for those joining courses such as computer science engineering, IT and electronics and communication engineering. For other courses, the fee is $3,750. “Visa restrictions are another reason for the uptick,” said V Kumaresan, registrar (in charge) of Anna University.
NRI students have joined UG courses such as biomedical, chemical, industrial, and electronics engineering (VLSI), along with mining, robotics, production engineering and geoinformatics. “They expect a demand for domain experts in AI and interdisciplinary courses in future. Our twinning programmes with foreign universities are another attraction for NRIs,” said R Baskaran, director of centre for international relations, Anna University.
The university enrols 10% of students under NRI, CIWGC and foreign nationals quota every year. About 202 students were enrolled in different programmes last time. “We expect to enrol about the same as last year,” Baskaran said.
